Thursday, July 17, 2008

For today's roundup, there are a couple of Tigers trade rumors, some Pistons news, and one remarkably familiar-looking Ohio State t-shirt.

The Florida Marlins have contacted Detroit about trading for catcher (and ex-Marlin) Pudge Rodriguez. Pudge will be a free agent after this season, and Detroit has a viable alternative at catcher in Brandon Inge. However, Detroit probably won't start dumping players until they're completely out of the playoff picture. This is a rumor to keep an eye on, but any trade of this nature is probably at least a couple weeks off.

Jon Paul Morosi of the Free Press is reporting that Detroit is willing to trade reliever Fernando Rodney. Rodney is 31 years old, has struggled the last two seasons with shoulder tendinitis, and is currently sporting a robust 7.71 ERA. I'm sure the Tigers will get great value out of that deal.

Via MLive, Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey played down rumors of a potential deal for Tracy McGrady. He said that Detroit had called "a few weeks ago" to inquire about a possible trade, but wouldn't say whether or not it involved McGrady. Any preliminary offers, he said, were turned down. It doesn't sound like the much-discussed McGrady trade is going to happen, although it would be interesting to see if Joe Dumars revisits these talks at some point.

Speaking of Dumars, it seems that he is not pleased with Piston fans complaining that he is not doing enough to improve the team. Patience, everyone. In Joe We Trust.

Varsity Blue digs up a photo of this season's Ohio State student football shirt, which appears to completely rip off the 2005 Michigan student shirt. Stupid Buckeyes, go to a real school, stop cheating, etc. Insults will be better thought out by November, I promise.

Update: The NHL has released the schedule for next season. Check out the Wings' here.